Ray McStay

McStay began his career at Celtic, where his older brothers Willie and Paul, as well as his great-uncles Willie and Jimmy had already played. A product of Celtic Boys Club, McStay signed professional forms at the same time as youth teammate Gerry Creaney.[2] Despite being regularly mentioned as having a big future at the club McStay had to wait until the 1992-93 season before being called into the Celtic first team and even then he only made the bench for a single league game against St Johnstone and was not called upon to play.[3]

McStay left Celtic in January 1995 to sign for Hamilton Academical on a free transfer. He made 30 league appearances in nearly two years at the club although he spent summer of 1996 having an unsuccessful trial with Stade Lavallois.[4] He subsequently had a trial with Wycombe Wanderers and was poised to sign for the club in October 1996 but the move fell through for undisclosed reasons.[5] In late 1996 he was loaned to Hereford United where he did not play a league game before, during the 1996-97 season, playing a single game for Cardiff City. McStay quit football soon after this.[6]

In summer 1997, whilst on honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, McStay was admitted to hospital with severe stomach cramps and fever and was reported as suffering a "mystery illness"[7] and was described as critically ill.[8]

McStay was the UK commercial director of Midgibyte, a Glasgow-based design consultancy business run by Paul McStay.[9] He now works at a Glasgow digital agency called MadeBrave.

• Ray McStay at Soccerbase